I. Field of Use
The present application relates to the field of remote management and control of electric or electro-mechanical devices. More specifically, the present application relates to a method and apparatus for self-assigning network identification codes to devices in home networks.
II. Description of the Related Art
Network technology has proliferated over the years, thanks to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet. Millions of home and business networks have been set up to access network resources, such as printers and other computers on the network.
The most familiar type of routers are home and small office routers that simply pass data, such as web pages and email, between the home computers and the owner's cable or DSL modem, which connects to the Internet (ISP). However more sophisticated routers range from enterprise routers, which connect large business or ISP networks up to the powerful core routers that forward data at high speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet backbone.
When a new network is set up, a user will typically simply power the router on and connect one or more devices to it. Routers are typically programmed during the manufacturing process to include a pre-assigned IP address, the most commonly one used today being 192.168.1.1. In the case of two or more wireless routers, their respective coverage areas may overlap. This would normally be a problem, but each router is additionally pre-programmed with a service-set identifier (SSID) that uniquely identifies each wireless router and, thus, a particular local-area network (LAN). Users must generally change the default SSID to avoid interference with other wireless routers that may be operating nearby.
Changing the SSID may be a difficult task for most consumers, as they generally do not possess the skills necessary to accomplish this task.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide wireless network devices that no not require user intervention in order to make them unique among other wireless network devices that may be operating nearby.